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Metro Mayors Caucus presentation: regional toolkits, missing-middle housing and civic collaboration
Summary
Heidi Williams, president and CEO of Civic Results and executive director of the Metro Mayors Caucus, briefed the committee on the caucus—s history, policy priorities, and toolkits for municipalities including a missing-middle housing toolkit and a business-friendly toolkit (Vybe).
Heidi Williams, president and CEO of Civic Results and executive director of the Metro Mayors Caucus, described the caucus—s regional work and said the group is producing resources Aurora staff can use on housing, business attraction and resilience.
Williams said the Metro Mayors Caucus began in 1993 and now covers the seven-county Denver metro area with "38, metro area mayors" participating. She described Civic Results as the caucus—s nonprofit arm and summarized programs such as an expanded Municipal Leadership Academy (open to council members), a future housing coalition producing a missing-middle housing toolkit and a "bridging the gap" series to build local-government–stakeholder relationships.
"Everything we do with our toolkits, this is all just kind of, like, if if you wanna implement something out of it, you can, but you certainly don't have to," Williams said, describing the resources as optional templates cities can adapt. She listed long-standing caucus priorities: regional coordination on transportation and transit, affordable and workforce housing, homelessness and hunger initiatives, sustainability and water conservation, and public-safety coordination.
Williams said the caucus favors local control and home-rule authority, opposes unfunded mandates and preemption of local authority, and supports tools such as housing tax credits and construction-defect reforms that municipalities have pursued. She noted the caucus is developing a "Vybe" toolkit to help jurisdictions adopt business-friendly policies in coordination with chambers of commerce and developer partners.
Committee members asked about caucus structure and how priorities are set; Williams said the caucus conducts an annual retreat and uses a super-majority (two-thirds) of mayors to adopt formal positions when possible, while an executive committee acts on more time-sensitive items. She also said the caucus has taken recent public positions — including a letter and press release opposing a governor's executive order related to land-use enforcement priorities and supporting a PUC vote to expand a utility grid.
Council members thanked Williams and indicated staff and elected leaders would follow up when Aurora wanted caucus support on specific legislative or regional items.
